Hamon Streaking Question

I

iticam92

Joined
Jun 12, 2014
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29
So I have some 1084 I got from New Jersey Steel Baron a number of years back. It seems that almost every hamon I do with this steel has some pretty obvious streaking in it. I've read that it could be alloy banding, but I don't know anything about it. Can anyone tell me for certain if thats what this is? And what's the solution? I'm overall happy with the knife, but the hamon looks really muddy. I'm hesitant to use NSB again if I'm getting steel that is sub par.

FYI- the pic posted below is after a 220 belt finish and a quick etch. The finished blade looks better, but this is the best picture I have of the streaking.



https://www.instagram.com/p/CinJ7zCOQeV/
 
That’s not alloy banding, that looks like decarb for sure, how much did you grind the blade post ht? Hamons are a balance of getting at thin before ht as you can but leaving enough material to grind through decarb from the ht. If all you did was hand sand after hardening it’s 100% decarb and I’d suggest going back to the grinder. When I’m doing the post ht grind on blades with hamons I will often start with a 50-60 grit belt then move to 120 before going up finer, sometimes on small blades I’ll just start at 120, but before I move on from this step when I think I’m done I give the blade a quick 5 second dip in ferric. That will show any white decarb that looks streaky or splotchy and I will go back to the 120 and grind some more and repeat until the blade is completely clean. I’ll also mirror that 1084 is not a good choice for a hamon, W2 would be much better or low manganese 1075/1095
 
Joshua Fisher said:
That’s not alloy banding, that looks like decarb for sure, how much did you grind the blade post ht? Hamons are a balance of getting at thin before ht as you can but leaving enough material to grind through decarb from the ht. If all you did was hand sand after hardening it’s 100% decarb and I’d suggest going back to the grinder. When I’m doing the post ht grind on blades with hamons I will often start with a 50-60 grit belt then move to 120 before going up finer, sometimes on small blades I’ll just start at 120, but before I move on from this step when I think I’m done I give the blade a quick 5 second dip in ferric. That will show any white decarb that looks streaky or splotchy and I will go back to the 120 and grind some more and repeat until the blade is completely clean. I’ll also mirror that 1084 is not a good choice for a hamon, W2 would be much better or low manganese 1075/1095
Click to expand...
Thanks for the response. I ground this pretty thin and I started on a 120 after hardening. I should have gotten through all decarb, but maybe not. I was trying to get some ashi activity by removing very little steel after ht and I thought I removed too much. I'll get some W2 and see how it goes. Thanks!
 
iticam92 said:
Thanks for the response. I ground this pretty thin and I started on a 120 after hardening. I should have gotten through all decarb, but maybe not. I was trying to get some ashi activity by removing very little steel after ht and I thought I removed too much. I'll get some W2 and see how it goes. Thanks!
Click to expand...
The only other thing that I find results in streaking is cleaning with acetone before etching, but what you have looks more like decarb, like I said I make sure not to move on from 120 until it comes out of a test etch 100% clean with a good etch.
 
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